The plot thankfully might be thickening for July with Froome out of Romandie with illness. How many racing days does he have this year? Just Oman and Catalunya? Maybe his numbers are on point and he'll crush it but it appears to be closer with Contador going so well.

10 days to the Giro. Cuddles has to be feeling good after Trentino after dropping Pozzovivo and Scarponi on the second last day. There's Quintana and Purito but who else might challenge? Rigo Uran I suppose. Love to see Basso and Cunego there. Ryder totally 'schlecked' the Ardennes this year. He is no doubt going well but does Dan Martin even care to compete for GC? Like to see him do well but don't know if Nico Roche is best suited to the Giro.

The plot thankfully might be thickening for July with Froome out of Romandie with illness. How many racing days does he have this year? Just Oman and Catalunya? Maybe his numbers are on point and he'll crush it but it appears to be closer with Contador going so well.

Froome sat out L-B-L but he's still listed on the Sky website for Romandie.

Also twitter is abuzz from the Michael Barry autobigraphy and his talks on Tramadal being as good as an other doping product he's taken. Not a good look for the Sky camp. I guess though the arguement is that it's not banned so technically still legal, but not necessarily ethical.

Sky release statement saying "We do not use Tramadol" - That is not what the Sky team doctor Alan Farrell said at the end of last year[1], he said they did prescribe it to riders. Michael Barry backs this up. But instead Fran Millar and Brailsford think the public are idiots by releasing a statement like this, something that only highlights Team Sky for what they are, hypocrites.

Sky release statement saying "We do not use Tramadol" - That is not what the Sky team doctor Alan Farrell said at the end of last year[1], he said they did prescribe it to riders. Michael Barry backs this up. But instead Fran Millar and Brailsford think the public are idiots by releasing a statement like this, something that only highlights Team Sky for what they are, hypocrites.

Allan Farrell, a full-time doctor with Team Sky since 2012, told Cyclingnews that Tramadol is, “an effective pain killer when it’s used in the clinically appropriate scenario. Certainly in our team we would have used it in the past but only when justified.”

Sky said that it had held its position on Tramadol “for the last two seasons”, i.e. not using it

"Farrell confirmed that Team Sky has used Tramadol in the past and would do in the future if the situation called for it but stated that the team would not use the drug in a training scenario."

Sky are a joke, no cleaner than any other team and with performances like those of Froome, one would guess, much less so. What is most shocking is the way fans are defending the team in exactly the same way that the Postal fans did when the smoke started to appear around Armstrong.

What they need to do is release the Vector system w/ other pedals. They actually started the s&d w/ the Speedplay system but switched to a 'generic' pedal in order to keep marketing power over the system. That pedal sucks balls and I'd give Shimano about a year before they come up with a much better system. They've already done this on their new fit system stationary bike.

Unfortunately for Wiggo, this Tour's course looks more like a Giro than the Tour he won. Only one long ITT at the very end and lots of irregular climbs.

10 days to the Giro. Cuddles has to be feeling good after Trentino after dropping Pozzovivo and Scarponi on the second last day. There's Quintana and Purito but who else might challenge? Rigo Uran I suppose. Love to see Basso and Cunego there. Ryder totally 'schlecked' the Ardennes this year. He is no doubt going well but does Dan Martin even care to compete for GC? Like to see him do well but don't know if Nico Roche is best suited to the Giro.

Maybe Evans? He seems raising and I loved how hard he tried last year to win the Giro. Be careful about Majka, he could perform with Roche. Lampre seems pretty strong. Also I want to see Samy Sanchez winning... He looks terrific in BMC jersey, but he could finally ditch the gold shoes...

"Farrell confirmed that Team Sky has used Tramadol in the past and would do in the future if the situation called for it but stated that the team would not use the drug in a training scenario."

Sky are a joke, no cleaner than any other team and with performances like those of Froome, one would guess, much less so. What is most shocking is the way fans are defending the team in exactly the same way that the Postal fans did when the smoke started to appear around Armstrong.

The game hasn't changed, just the players.

I am not a Sky Fan. I saw Froome at the Ventoux last year. I agree. We are still getting riders busted and if the peloton is clean then why dope. Dopers have always been a ahead of the testers I don't see anything radical that has happened to change things.Those riders that are taking Tramadol must be long term/big users if they are can race on it.I think If Evans is back to his best then he would win. He can take time on the non mountainous stages but I am not convinced about his form. Quintana has not really lit the road up this year Rodriguez can be inconsistent over a grand tour. This tour is wide open and letting any riders go on any of the climbs could be costly.

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